Akilah Favors is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of California- Berkeley. Broadly, her research lies at the intersection of urban redevelopment and the politics of social change, specifically as it pertains to race, gender, and class relations. As a Black feminist scholar, her research agenda focuses on identifying and analyzing: (1) the reproduction of racial, gender, and class inequality in neoliberal economies of gentrification; (2) the political economy of Black resistance to urban displacement; and (3) how the heterogeneity of Black identity/culture is navigated to fortify Black solidarity against systemic racism in urban environments. These three themes encapsulate the multifaceted premise of her dissertation, which examines the often-overlooked presence of Black agency amid the prevalence of racial violence in urban spaces.
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To explore these dynamics, her doctoral project focuses on the unprecedented decline of the Black Mecca of the South- Atlanta, Georgia. Focusing on the city’s last predominantly Black region, she analyzes how Black middle-class actors and non-profits work with historically marginal groups to curtail two major catalysts of Black displacement – unaffordable housing and economic insecurity. Her investigation draws on historical, interview, ethnographic, and urban policy data to understand how the strategic mobilization of Black solidarity secures racial equity in the restrictive neoliberal market of gentrification. As she uncovers the limitations and possibilities of Black resiliency in the urban South, her dissertation theorizes Black placemaking as an act of resistance to a racialized economy that continues to uproot Black people, culture and neighborhoods from inner-cities nationwide.
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Akilah holds a B.A. from Spelman College and a M.A. from UC Berkeley, both in Sociology. Prior to graduate school, Akilah conducted an award-winning project on youth participation in the Afro-descendant Movement in Argentina and researched student protests for diversity at Afrikaans Universities in South Africa. In her MA, Akilah draws from eight months of ethnographic research and 26 interviews to explain how Black middle-class negotiators and investors in Southwest Atlanta intertwine oral histories, economic resources, cultural currency, and political mobilization to combat the imminent erasure of Black urban life. Her research has been supported by the National Trust for Historic Preservation: African American Heritage Fund, UNCF Mellon Mays Foundation, Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, Black Studies Collaboratory, the Black Graduate Collective, the UC-HBCU Initiative, and UCLA's International Summer Program of Race. Outside of academia, Akilah enjoys weightlifting, hiking, cooking healthy soul food, traveling, supporting Black businesses, and spending time with family.​​​
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Urban Ethnographer. Scholar Activist. Cultural Worker
